Editor's Note: Linda Wolf is coauthor of Global Uprising: Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century : Stories from a New Generation of Activists (Gabriola Island [Canada]: New Society Publishers, 2001). Wolf runs the Daughters-Sisters outreach program, the Youth Activism site and is an award-winning photographer. We are privileged to publish these self-reflective dispatches from Wolf's journeys, throughout Israel and Palestinian territories, as part of the Compassionate Listening Project, a peace initiative created by Leah Green that enables citizens to take part in the reconciliation process.

5:30 am
July 1, 2002
Bethlehem

Dearest Heather and Jenni,

It's barely dawn and the guards are patrolling. The sound of what appears to be two tanks making their rounds through the narrow dirt roads drowns out everything else. The clash of harsh metal on concrete and rock is such a contrast to the softness I'd heard since before dawn, when the roosters and birds began to rule the sound space, and I woke up feeling that the whole house had good dreams, due to the love and good will that we've experienced together since our arrival.

I'm still in bed. I slept in Marcella's room. She's Eileen and Zoughbi's 10 year old daughter. We're staying with them in Bethlehem, in what's called a home stay. Leah's really good friends with them; it's obvious how much they love her and the work we're doing. Just being here is uplifting for them, they say.

Last night, Marcella and I put a wammy on her bedroom, to clear it of bad feelings she's had since this 2nd Intifada began. During the siege at the Church of the Nativity a few months agi, soldiers from the Israeli Defense Force had forced their way into their house, searching all their rooms, including hers, and now she can't sleep there. She's afraid someone will be hidden under the bed with a gun and shoot her at night. I told her I'd clear the space and put good vibrations back in it with my good dreams.

Marcella's dad, Zoughbi Zoughbi is the director of Wi'am, a community based non-profit organization which helps the people of Bethlehem deal with mediation, conflict resolution, and social transformation. Since the siege, he says their work has had to be modified to help neighbors and people deal with the urgent and fundamental crisis of feeding their families, and dealing with the trauma they are experiencing at present. Tourism, which is these people’s main means of income, is basically zero and people are having a really hard time making ends meet. Plus, with the checkpoints closing, basically imprisoning them inside Bethlehem, and the curfew requiring them to be inside a lot of the time, people are really suffering. It's a terrible situation. There is no normal life anymore.

Yesterday, while curfew was lifted we visited the Church of the Nativity and were literally under siege ourselves, by young men begging us to purchase souvenirs. There are so many men who have 4 or 5 children and can't feed them.

Today, the curfew here was lifted, so the people could go out from 9 am – 3 pm, and the checkpoints have been opened. So, Bethlehem was very busy. Eileen Zoughbi told us, it’s exhausting and she’s getting depressed. She has relatively no time to do everything she needs to do between 9 and 3. She rushes around to work and do the shopping and take care of businesses and before she knows it, she has to get home fast. The soldiers are not kidding around, I saw it myself, they don't want to see anyone on the streets.

There isn't a great presence of the IDF in Bethlehem right now. Just a couple tanks that make the rounds. But during the siege, there were hundreds, Zoughbi says.

Eileen is from the US, so in some ways they have it a little easier. They have dual passports, or at least Eileen and 2 of the 4 kids do. Not Zoughbi, tho. He’s got an Israeli passport. Passports are very important around here. We don’t go anywhere without ours. And if you’re an Israeli, you can't go into the occupied territories without a whole lot of paperwork, even if you're on the delegation with us.

When we arrived at Zoughbi's house, they met us with a big barbeque and lots of traditional foods. We ate outside, trying to keep the flies off the food. They said the flies are really bad right now because the garbage trucks can't get through because of border closures and trash piles up. The wild cats really get the bum end of the deal; they get stoned for going into the garbage.

The houses in Bethlehem are build up one upon the other. Because people feel so cooped up during curfew, rooftops are a salvation. We've been spending a lot of time on Zoughbi's roof, getting educated by Elaine. "Soft curfew," which is what we have now, means that the army is not so rigid about people staying inside. They don't want them on the roads, but they don't mind if we're on the roofs.

When the siege was on, Eileen said they stayed in their house for 32 days and couldn't even go near the window for fear of getting shot. Last evening, we were up on the rooftop, and Eileen pointed out different sites in the distance and told us stories. She and Zoughbi filled us in on the history of the current conflict. To many of the delegation, including me, it was easy to see that these folks were having a hard time but that they were so fortunate to have such a rich, extended family life. Of course that life would still be there without occupation, but the tendency to idealize is so easy in this situation, and the reality is so much more human. For example, Marcella, Zoughbi and Eileen's 10 year old daughter also had taken me on the roof when we first arrived and told me more of the neighborhood gossip, pointing out people on their roofs and telling me about family feuds, etc.

Eileen says that this war is a sound war! So true. After the fear-instilling noise of the metallic wheels of the tanks die down, they're replaced by the live chanting coming from the Mosques, calling people to prayers, the Churches ringing their bells and all the birds, whose songs are incredibly beautiful. These sounds echo just as loudly from one mountain to another and down to the checkpoints.